Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris heads a delegation from St. Kitts and Nevis that is in Jamaica to attend the Thanksgiving Service for the life of His Excellency Cedric Harper CMG.  His Excellency Cedric Harper, who died Wednesday, August 29^th at the age of 87 years old, served as High Commissioner for St. Kitts and Nevis to Jamaica since 2001. 

His Thanksgiving Service will be held tomorrow, Saturday, September 22^nd, 2018, from 10:00am at the University Chapel on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).  The interment will follow at the Meadowrest Memorial Gardens.

Prime Minister Harris is accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister the Hon. Premier Mark Brantley and nurse Sylvia Manning MBE, who is a close cousin of the late Cedric Harper.

Mr. Harper joined the Consular Corps in Jamaica in the capacity of Honorary Consul General of St. Kitts and Nevis, serving in that position from 1983 to 1999 and as Consul General from 1999 to 2000 before being appointed High Commissioner for St. Kitts and Nevis to Jamaica in 2001. 
From 2001 to 2014, Mr. Harper also served as non-resident Ambassador for St. Kitts and Nevis to the Republic of Cuba.

H.E. Cedric Harper worked at UWI’s Mona Campus in various capacities from 1967 up to his retirement in 1995.  Notably, he served as Warden at Irvine Hall (1967-1993) and as Dean of Students then started a law practice upon retiring from UWI, working full-time up to 2000.

Mr. Harper was born in Cayon, St. Kitts on September 25^th, 1930.  From 1948 to the mid-1960s, he worked as an Assistant Teacher in Basseterre, St. Kitts then as a Headmaster in Gingerland, Nevis.

H.E. Cedric Harper was the recipient of an Award of Excellence in Teaching from H.E. Sir Kenneth Blackburne, Governor of the Leeward Islands (1955), a St. Kitts and Nevis Independence Honours Award for his contributions to Education and Public Service (1988), and a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) conferred by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (2005).

Cedric Harper earned a BA degree, specializing in Economics, History and Spanish, from the University College of the West Indies (UCWI), the precursor to UWI.  He also attained an MSc in Economics at Mona, an LLB from the University of London, and a Legal Education Certificate from the Norman Manley Law School at Mona.    

On behalf of the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis, Prime Minister Harris extends deepest sympathy to his daughter, Adrienne, and his son, Douglas, as well as his sisters, Dora Stevens and Myrtle Heath who both live in Antigua, and his cousin, Sylvia Manning. 

Mr. Harper was pre-deceased by his wife, Dr. Barbara Lyle-Harper, a Jamaican who worked as a District Doctor and Medical Superintendent at the Alexandra Hospital in Nevis from 1963 to 1966.